Lots of Reasons to Smile

April is all about our guiding principle of laughter. I have a lot to be happy and smiling about these days, as the awards and milestones accomplished by the FAS Division keep coming in.

Another year passed by and I’m proud that our campus won Recyclemania for the sixth year in a row! As you may know, RecycleMania was launched in 2001 as a challenge between two universities to increase recycling on their campuses. It has grown to 607 colleges and universities, spanning 49 states and Canada. This year’s 10-week contest occurred from January 17 to March 27. Our campus claimed the Grand Champion title with a percentage of overall waste recycled of 71.82%. I am proud that recycling has become a way of life at our university not just during this contest period, but throughout the year. Many thanks go to Gary Cinnamon, Ed Johnson, the Facility Services Blue Crew: Cesar Aguilar, Danny Aguilar, Jim Dimartino, Rafael Lopez, Gilbert Munoz, Mike Tili, and Carl Hanson, everyone in Facility Services, and our entire campus community.

I’m sure you have all seen our beautiful new parking structure. It’s almost complete and will open in May. It just received the “Project of the Year” award from the American Public Works Association. Parking Structure 1 will provide spaces for 1640 vehicles, and another 200 spaces in its outside lots. It’s six stories tall, and connects to the campus via a pedestrian bridge. The floors are color coded inside for way finding. Some other fun facts: the structure will provide 30 Alternative Fuel Vehicle parking spaces, has 22 emergency blue phones, four elevators, and 52 security cameras. Many of you assisted with this project including Belinda Garcia, Robert Williams, Brad Fenton, Dora Knoblock, Doug Miller, Linda Leiter (retired Associate VP), and staff from Parking and Commuter Services, University Police Department, Planning, Design and Construction, IITS, and Facility Services. Thank you for your creativity, dedication, and excellent work on this project.

With all our incredible accomplishments, I can’t wait to celebrate at this year’s Spring Fling. I hope all of you join us this Friday in recognizing and rewarding our fine employees for their outstanding contributions to the campus. Candace even promises to wear matching shoes!

FAS - What a Fine Division!

The strength of the team is each individual member… the strength of the member is the team. - Coach Phil Jackson

I don’t have to tell people that FAS has the finest employees around; you all prove it to them on a daily basis. CSUSM was just awarded two very prestigious awards that I need to brag about – The San Diego Excellence in Energy (SANDEE) Award and the Governor’s Employee Safety Award (GESA). These awards not only demonstrate the importance of our labors, but how we have earned the admiration and respect of our community. People want to be like us. We are not the standard; we are what others strive to be. The sense of pride I have to be a part of it is overwhelming.

The objective of the San Diego Excellence in Energy (SANDEE) Award is to recognize outstanding organizations, projects and activities that have achieved significant energy savings and/or contributions toward the goals of the San Diego Regional Energy Strategy 2030, through the implementation of energy efficiency, energy conservation, or renewable energy measures. CSUSM won the SANDEE Award in Outstanding Organizational Achievement.

This award demonstrates the innovative thinking and collaborative efforts of many individuals. As the project manager, Steve Watters ensured the project ran smoothly and stayed within budget. Floyd Dudley took over for Ed Johnson when he assumed the role as energy manager and made sure we met our energy and equipment quality goals. Steve Holbrook, Gerard McQuade, Craig Curtis, David Rodriguez, Larry Russell, and Jim Roscamp all provided contractor support as well as invaluable technical assistance with the mechanical systems. Scott Gorsuch and Ariel Villanueva provided crucial insight before and during the lighting retrofits. In addition, Pat Simpson and Bryan Fisher provided technical support and contractor assistance. Overall, we exceeded our energy goals from 20% to 30%.

In January 2010, California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) was honored as a campus, with a Governor’s Employee Safety Award (GESA) for its exceptional performance in 2008. Our fearless leaders in Risk Management in Safety— Regina Frasca, Bill Thomas, Bruce Bradley, Humberto Garcia, Heather Zarnesky, and Janice Plemons in Workers’ Compensation, provided the tools to empower the campus community to take control of their own risk management and safety. Through their leadership and communication with the campus community, CSUSM faculty and staff performed their work for an entire calendar year without sustaining a lost time injury or illness. This performance was the best in the entire CSU system. A big thank you and congrats to everyone for making this happen.

Are we the best or what? As the finest division there is, we sure have a lot of be proud of.

We're Excited!

The VP’s Blog has been hijacked by the VPFAS Office! This month’s guiding principle is Excitement. See what we’re excited about…

Candace: What am I excited for? Not sure you really want to know but here goes.

1. Spring Break. This week will be the pinnacle of all furlough days. The anticipation is like Christmas morning.

2. The new Parking Structure. I am convinced that once this opens all traffic on Craven Drive will magically reroute to the other side of campus therefore allowing me to cruise up to lot E and find a parking spot with the ease experienced during summer or winter break. My trusty Honda deserves that.

3. The softball team playing their home season on campus. At the heart of every major University is its Athletics program. I can’t wait to see some action down there and the boost to student life on campus.

4. The last season of LOST. Anyone with me on this? What is up with “bad Locke?” How did the polar bears get there? Why did Walt talk backwards? What is with that statue with the 4 toes? Why does Richard Alpert wear guyliner? Tuesday nights just got interesting.


Jennifer: What am I excited for? Oh lots of things . . . especially this week!

1. The Annual Customer Satisfaction Surveys. The surveys have been launched, and we are receiving valuable feedback from across the campus!

2. The PEER Recognition Program. PEER Team TWENTY has kicked off the nomination period, and the nominations have started rolling in – nothing is better than reviewing the kind words that colleagues submit about one another.

3. QI is on facebook! What is more exciting than being the first QI program in the CSU to have a facebook account! In a time when resources are low, we are still capable of bringing our program to new heights by finding innovative ways to communicate and share information!

4. The Policies and Procedures Web Page! On February 22nd, the new Policies, Procedures, and Guidelines Web page will be launched!

5. The Division Meeting! Seeing our division come together brings forward not only excitement, but laughter and the finest employees on campus!


Robin: What am I excited for?

1. The completion and submission of Mid-Year. That’s right! FAS just completed a comprehensive mid-year budget review of all revenue and expenditure activities for all funds, including Operating, Capital & Trusts. Thank you to all budget representatives for your hard work on this.

2. My birthday! It’s coming up and I’m excited to finally turn 21.

3. Survivor: “Heroes vs. Villains”. It’s back on Thursday nights. This time it will feature ten former Survivors known for their integrity— the Heroes and ten former Survivors known for their deception— the Villains. Sound kind of like our state assembly members. I can’t wait.

4. My daughter’s wedding! And you’re all invited . . . I will gladly accept cash, checks or PayPal.

Coffee, Anyone?

I know that the past few months haven’t been easy for all of us as we have adjusted to furloughs, dealt with budget reductions, unfilled vacancies, and the worry about future unknowns. In order to make myself available as much as possible, I’m increasing the VP’s Coffee Hours with Staff to twice per month. During these coffee hours, I will do my best to answer any questions you have, discuss your concerns, and share the latest information available.

Staff coffee hours are open to all FAS staff members. Although we will send invitations, the dates are listed below so you may join me at your convenience. As always, please check with your manager for approval and to ensure proper department coverage needs are met.

Coffee hours take place in the Provost’s Conference Room on the 5th floor of Kellogg Library, right above Starbucks. If you would like a drink from Starbucks, you must RSVP at least 2 days in advance to Candace Bebee.

I encourage you to attend these sessions, to provide your feedback, and ask questions. I look forward to meeting with you!

Coffee Hour dates:

Wednesday, February 17
Wednesday, March 3
Wednesday, March 17
Thursday, April 15
Wednesday, April 28

Guest Blogger on Responsibility

This month, I asked Jennifer Williams to be our guest blogger. Here are some of her thoughts on our guiding principle, Responsibility. Thank you, Jennifer!

The guiding principles that we embrace within FAS are important components of our culture, and our FAS values: Trust, Professionalism, Respect, Collaboration, and Responsibility set us apart by defining who we are and how we do business.

So this month, we’re talking about responsibility, and in FAS, there is a certain familiarity to responsibility because of the regulatory environment that we work in each day. Being in this division, we recognize the importance of meeting mandates and following policies, laws, and requirements, and we also recognize the personal accountability that comes with being responsible.

In this division, responsibility is centered on taking ownership of our actions and seeking positive solutions. And through focusing on the positive solutions, we are able to maintain our university-first attitudes by seeing how to fix a problem as opposed to blaming others for why the situation exists. In challenging times, such as these, it is important for us to ask the right questions: “what can we do?” and “how can we help?” instead of “why did that department do that?” or “who made the mistake?” or even, “why should I help - that’s not my problem”. Ineffective organizations place blame, but effective organizations focus on the future and how to turn the situation into a success.

It is times like these, when our leaders emerge by finding creative and positive solutions to problems that may or may not be within their purview. It is times like these, when we work together instead of placing blame on others to ensure that we are as effective as possible. It is times like these, when we should recognize how being accountable has led to our many accomplishments. And it is times like these, when we take on additional responsibilities in support of our university’s mission – our student’s success and our organization’s success is reliant on us fulfilling our responsibilities.

In the words of Winston Churchill, “the price of greatness is responsibility”.

Guest Blogger on Professionalism

This month, I asked Robin Guidera to be our guest blogger. Here are some of her thoughts on our guiding principle, Professionalism. Thank you, Robin!

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. – Warren Buffet

Looks like we’ve come full circle. Last October, VP Hawk asked each of us “Are You A Professional?” As October’s guiding principal for this month, each one of us would like to answer, “Of course I am.” As I look around, and recall some of the hard times we’ve all been faced with this past year, I can only hope that my attitude and character were in check. Was yours? After all, professionalism isn’t always about the clothes you wear or the car you drive, but how you do what you do!

The essence of professionalism is the attitude which someone brings to their job. The title or type of job is not an issue since an unethical physician is less of a professional than a gardener who repairs a sprinkler he broke while mowing the lawn rather than leave it, blaming it on excessive water pressure.

Professionalism and character go hand in hand. A professional does their part in seeing to it that a task is accomplished, sometimes ignoring the clock. They contribute to an uplifting tone in the workplace promoting integrity, minimizing gossip and staying focused. They respect those placed in authority over them and more importantly, those they direct. Ultimately their focus is less on themselves and more on how they affect those around them.

I’ve learned a lot from the people I work with since I am surrounded by such professionals. I hope everyone is (and feels) as fortunate as I.

Guest Blogger on Trust

This month, I asked Candace Bebee to be our guest blogger. I thought it would be interesting for us all to read someone else's perspective on topics from time to time. As you know, the monthly guiding principle for September is Trust. Here are some of her thoughts on this important topic. Thank you, Candace!


Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust, as defined by Webster’s, is the assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something- one in which confidence is placed.

I don’t know about you, but I place my trust in my mom & dad, my Honda Civic, my riding helmet and Starbucks. These people/items/places have both the characteristics of trust noted by Webster’s, but more importantly, my own personal experiences to back them up.

In times of uncertainty or distress, who can you trust? I know I can always count on a daily bag of peanut M&Ms (OK, maybe a few bags) to pick me up, but what keeps us motivated us work? What holds us accountable? Who can you trust or what can you trust?

Consider our division’s vision and values. I think many of our guiding principles- respect and collaboration for example, are both the foundation for and result of a degree of trust amongst ourselves. I know that I am just one small piece of the bigger picture here and my daily work depends on my trust in the other pieces all coming together. It is a great feeling knowing that the other departments in FAS “have my back.” So at work, I place trust in my co-workers to carry their load and in return, I do my part to lessen that load. All of you come through for me every time. I trust in that.

At several budget forums, President Haynes has repeatedly asked us to “assume good intent.” I think this is a statement worthy of repeating. She is asking us to trust in a time of uncertainty. I trust that we all are here for the same reason— our students. I trust that everyone shares the “University First” perspective. Without a shared goal, there is no trust.

Trust is about doing the right thing, together.